Dam Breaks During Flood, Local Homeowners Struggle To Get It Fixed

Thomasville, GA - Walter and Leta Brandt live along Lake Eagle Drive in Thomasville. They say one of their favorite things to do is spend time in their sunroom.

"We enjoy it very much," said Walter. "We spend most of our time here, but of course no more lake, so that's kind of boring. We look at that and think of all the things that used to be," he said.

The Brandts are just two of the some dozens of homeowners that no longer look outside their windows and see Lake Eagle.

"Our property value is no longer lake front property, it's just a trashed out weed bed," said Deborah Brandt, a Lake Eagle resident and member of the Homeowners Association.

The lake didn't always look like this. A heavy rain storm back in June 2012 caused the dam to break and flood waters washed away the lake.

"The dam is actually owned by someone else so we don't have any right to repair it," Deborah Brandt said. "We've made many efforts to contact the owner of the property and they didn't respond to our requests."

According to the city, the property is owned by Acorn Properties in Thomasville. City council members say they've also reached out to the owner numerous times to get the dam fixed, but they've had no cooperation.

At a city council meeting on Monday night, the council decided to start the process of condemning the property.

Steve Sykes, Thomasville's City Manager said, "What we hope happens is that the owner will deed the property over to the Homeowners Association, but if that doesn't happen, and the city ends up with property, than the city will deed that over to Homeowners Association and then they can get it fixed like they want to."

City council members say that process could take up to 120 days.

*We also reached out to the owner of Acorn Properties. However, our calls were not returned.*

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